Dutch retired from the Army in 2011 after returning from another deployment, a divorce, and 28 years, 10 months and 4 days of active service. He taught High School for a year before joining the local Police Department in his old home town. He still lives with one dog and a cat. Two of his sons currently serve in the US Army. The youngest is still in High School. Things change... the blog remains.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

I gotta go do WHAT?

So anyway, tomorrow I have to fly to Baghdad for a trial.

That’s right. In a middle of a war zone I have been subpoenaed. It seems that two persons who we captured during a cordon and search are going to court. This happened in August. Not to bad, really, with all the rest of the crazy crap going on over here. Only three months to get a court case before the bench.

It’s pretty much a slam-dunk case…in my opinion. These two guys tried to drive out of our search area and when we stopped them they fled on foot. We chased them down, and with help of helo FLIR, had eyes on them the entire time. Inside the car was everything needed to make a VBIED. It just wasn’t hooked up yet.

Witnesses stated the two were often in the area with different cars. They claim it isn’t their car…which I do not doubt. Are you going to make a car bomb out of your own car?

So, it should go pretty smooth…unless Ramsey Clarke shows up to defend them, I suppose.

In other news we are preparing for the National Elections next week. It will be crazy around here until the 18th or so. Everyone thinks not to much will happen, a repeat of the November vote on the constitution.

Of course the Leftist-Defeatist-Democrats will no doubt use this as the Tet Offensive they so desperately seem to seek in everything that happens over here. Any event that happens will be seen as a failure. I don’t know why they even pretend that they support us over here.

We are still not sure when we are leaving to come home. The projected dates are between JAN 06 and the Apocalypse. Too many idiots in charge in the higher positions. Too many part time soldiers who don’t know what they are doing are trying to be in charge.

The ‘officer’ who was working our re-deployment LTC Simmons (yes, I used this dirt-bags name) left country before doing anything to get us out of here, without telling us he was leaving, and without giving our information to anyone else. So, basically, he abandoned us here so he could go home early.

This is getting to be typical of the attitude by senior officers anymore. “I got my ticket punched and so I have to get home to get a good re-assignment.” No one cares about their soldiers anymore, as long as their report card looks good.

The higher ups take no responsibility for any action. They will find ways to push that responsibility down to the soldier. This is why they are doing ‘Risk Assessment Cards’, Briefings where the soldier signs a sheet saying he was briefed on the dangers of…blaa blaa blaa… So if something goes wrong, and it’s a combat situation so things do go wrong…the senior officers can say…”LOOK! I told them to be safe…It’s not my fault!”

Cover Your Ass = Field Grade OfficerBesides all this, the lack of support from the Left, the Media, the criminal incompetence of the senior ranks in the military, the greed and graft from the contractors, not to mention all the above found in the Iraqi Government and Military, the soldiers on the ground are busting their asses and making a positive impact on the people of Iraq.

1 Comments:

"The higher ups take no responsibility for any action. They will find ways to push that responsibility down to the soldier. This is why they are doing ‘Risk Assessment Cards’, Briefings where the soldier signs a sheet saying he was briefed on the dangers of…blaa blaa blaa…"

Excuse me? Risk Assessment Cards? WTF kind of stupidity is that? Since when do soldiers have to sign-off before going into a war zone? I thought everyone knew that war is inherently dangerous. It's kind of obvious, isn't it? Maybe the higher ups are afraid of responsibility - but, if so, why the hell are they in a position of ... RESPONSIBILITY? Maybe they make their wives sign-off before having sex - you know, the risk of experiencing pleasure or getting pregnant, which would require another 4 sign-off forms in triplicate. That just boggles my mind. I better go sign-off on my dangers-of-breathing form now ...